Systems and methods for bandwidth consumption management

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are described for a media guidance application (e.g., implemented on a user device) that dynamically adapts network performance parameters for applications based on their respective usage likelihoods.

BACKGROUND

Running multiple applications on a network channel with limitedthroughput affects the individual performance of the applications.Running multiple applications simultaneously in an environment withlimited bandwidth causes them to compete for the bandwidth, whichimpedes the performance of the applications. In certain cases, thedemand of an application may experience a sudden increase, which wouldrequire more bandwidth. Users may be inconvenienced by the increase inbandwidth requirement and a subsequent degradation in performance of theapplication when multiple applications may be running simultaneously.Conventional systems do not gauge performance of the network for itsimpact on applications relying on data being sent through a lowbandwidth pipe. This forces users to decide how to allocate bandwidthresources, which is inefficient and negatively impacts the user's mediaconsumption enjoyment.

SUMMARY

Systems and methods are described herein for managing bandwidthconsumption of various applications in response to an external trigger.For example, suppose that the user is tagged in a video posted on socialmedia. The media guidance application may detect this event and inresponse, execute steps such as determining: a media asset associatedwith the event, an application through which the media asset can beaccessed, and the amount of bandwidth needed to ensure access. In thiscase, the media guidance application may determine that the media assetis the video in which the user is tagged. Furthermore, the mediaguidance application may determine that the media asset can be accessedusing social media applications such as Facebook and Instagram. Themedia guidance application may retrieve the bandwidth limits of variousapplications on the user's local device. The bandwidth limit may be themaximum bandwidth an application is allocated for use. For example, themedia guidance application may measure that Facebook and Instagram areeach consuming 5 megabits per second (Mbps) of a total bandwidth of 10Mbps in the network. The media guidance application may furtherdetermine that the video, in which the user is tagged, requires abandwidth of 6 Mbps for playback. The media guidance application maycalculate, based on the user's usage statistics of the respectiveapplications, the likelihood that the user will access the video onFacebook and the likelihood that the user will access the video onInstagram. For example, the media guidance application may determinethat the user accesses Facebook on a daily basis and uses Instagram onlyonce a month. In response, the media guidance application may determinethat Facebook has a higher likelihood of being accessed than Instagram.The media guidance application may then determine that Facebook needs anadditional 1 Mbps of bandwidth to stream the video and may add 1 Mbps toFacebook's bandwidth limit by reducing Instagram's bandwidth limit by 1Mbps.

The media guidance application may be implemented on a server and/or ata user device (e.g., a set-top box), and may retrieve a first bandwidthlimit of a first application and a second bandwidth limit of a secondapplication. These bandwidth limits may have been set by the mediaguidance application based on measurements of bandwidth usage. Forexample, the first bandwidth limit may be associated with a firstapplication, Facebook, and may allow Facebook to consume up to 5megabits per second (Mbps). The second bandwidth limit may be associatedwith a second application, Twitter, and may allow Twitter to utilize upto 3 Mbps. These limits may be determined by the media guidanceapplication based on the total bandwidth in the network and the types ofmedia typically accessed on the respective applications. For example,the media guidance application may determine that primarily videos areaccessed on Facebook and the videos require at least 5 Mbps. It is alsopossible that Facebook never utilizes more than 5 Mbps. Therefore, themedia guidance application may set Facebook's bandwidth limit to 5 Mbps.The media guidance application may also determine that the totalbandwidth in a network is 4 Mbps. Therefore, the bandwidth limit ofFacebook must be set to 4 Mbps or less.

The media guidance application may then detect an event of interest fora user. The event of interest may be detected based on preferencesspecified by the user in a user profile. For example, the media guidanceapplication may detect that a social media post has been made and thatthe user profile indicates that the user wishes to be notified of socialmedia posts.

Upon detecting the event, the media guidance application may determinethat the post includes a photograph that may be viewed using a pluralityof social media applications like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, andothers. Based on a user profile, the media guidance application maydetermine a first likelihood that the media asset (e.g., photograph)will be accessed using a first application and a second likelihood thatthe media asset will be accessed using the second application. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine that the user usesthe first application (e.g., Facebook) more than the second application(e.g., Twitter or Instagram) for social media posts. Upon determiningthat the first likelihood is greater than the second likelihood, themedia guidance application may reduce the second bandwidth limit by afirst amount to increase the first bandwidth limit by the first amount.For example, the media guidance application may determine that the userprefers to use Facebook more than Twitter, and therefore may reduce thebandwidth limit of Twitter, and increase the bandwidth limit ofFacebook, since Facebook needs more bandwidth to function.

The described method of managing bandwidth of various applications ismore efficient than conventional systems of managing bandwidth, becausethe described method considers user preferences and predicts a futureincrease in the bandwidth consumption of a first application based on anexternal trigger and preferences associated with that trigger. Ratherthan preventing the user from accessing a desired application when anevent is detected because of lack of bandwidth and resources, thedescribed method automatically reallocates bandwidth to enable accesswhen such an event is detected. Additionally, the described method alsorecommends applications from which bandwidth may be borrowed, to make upfor the additional bandwidth that may be needed by the firstapplication.

The media guidance application is also useful for events that can affectlong-term usage of applications, for example, a weather alert of ahurricane. Several media assets can be associated with the weatheralert, including graphics, text updates, videos, and audio. Suppose thatthe media asset is a video of a weather forecast. The video may providedetails about the hurricane's trajectory and rainfall estimates forvarious regions. The media guidance application may determine that thelikelihood that the media asset will be accessed by Yahoo Weather, aweather application, is greater than Facebook. In response, the mediaguidance application may increase the bandwidth limit of Yahoo Weatherby decreasing the bandwidth limit of Facebook. Thus, the media guidanceapplication is able to anticipate more usage of Yahoo Weather due to thehurricane, and responds accordingly.

In some aspects, the media guidance application sets, at a server, afirst bandwidth limit for a first application and a second bandwidthlimit for a second application, based on measuring bandwidth consumptionfor the first and second applications. respectively. For example, themedia guidance application may determine a bandwidth limit of anapplication by executing instances of the application and measuringconsumption of the bandwidth of the running instances. In someembodiments, the first bandwidth limit is determined by measuringbandwidth consumption of each of a plurality of instances of the firstapplication running over a plurality of devices. For example, thebandwidth consumption of an application may be measured by determiningthe bandwidth consumption of multiple instances of an applicationrunning on multiple set-top boxes associated with multiple users. Thesemeasurements may be used to generate a best-fit regression curve thatprovides the bandwidth limits for each application.

The media guidance application may detect an occurrence of an event atthe server. The detection of an event may be based on user-definedpreferences. For example, the user may customize the media guidanceapplication so as to be notified of certain kinds of events. In someembodiments, the occurrence of the event may be communicated to themedia guidance application. For example, the server may detect a post ona social media network. The post may be of interest to the user becausethe post may originate from a second individual related to the user.

The media guidance application may retrieve, at the server, a userprofile for a user, wherein the user profile comprises a list of eventsthe user wishes to be notified about. For example, the user maycustomize the alerts that the user wishes to be notified about. In someembodiments, the user may wish to be notified about social media posts.In some embodiments, the user may wish to be notified about weatherchanges at a location. Additionally, the user may define a geographicalregion, that would limit the notification of the events to thoseoccurring in the geographical area.

The media guidance application, at the server, may detect whether theevent matches the list of events. For example, the media guidanceapplication may extract metadata associated with the event. The metadataassociated with the event may contain location information, time stamps,event type, event description, etc. The extracted metadata is comparedto the preferences defined by the user. For example, the list of eventsmay indicate that the user wants to be informed of weather forecasts.Meanwhile, the event detected at the server may be a weekly weatherforecast update. The metadata of the event may indicate that the eventis associated with weather, New York City, weekly forecast, etc.Therefore, the media guidance application may determine that the eventmatches the list of events highlighted by the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determinewhether the event occurs in a geographically proximate region around theuser, wherein the geographically proximate region is defined by theuser. Suppose that the user lives in New York City. The user maytherefore be concerned only with weather forecasts related to New YorkCity. In this case, the media guidance application may determine whetherthe metadata of the weather forecast includes a reference to New YorkCity (e.g., in the title, description, etc.). Upon determining that adetected event is associated with weather updates in New York City, themedia guidance application may determine that the event matches theuser's list of events because it occurs in a geographically proximateregion.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determinewhether the event is associated with a communication that the user hastransmitted to a remote server, wherein the remote server transmits thecommunication to a plurality of other users associated with the firstuser on the remote server. For example, the media guidance applicationmay determine whether the user has posted a comment on Facebook thattags multiple other users that are friends with the user. The commentmay be transmitted to a remote server, which may forward the comment toall of the users tagged on the post.

Upon determining that the event matches the list of events, the mediaguidance application may identify, by the server, a media assetassociated with the event. For example, the media guidance applicationmay determine that a friend posted a video on Facebook and tagged theuser in it. In the list of events, the user may indicate that he/shewishes to be notified about his/her tagged videos on social mediaapplications (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.). The mediaguidance application may identify the media asset to be the video taggedby the user's friend.

The media guidance application may retrieve, from a user profile, aplurality of applications used by the user. For example, the userprofile may track the user's application usage history. The applicationusage history may indicate the application's name, a date when the useraccessed the application, times when the user opened or closed theapplication, and the bandwidth conditions during the times the useraccessed the application. For example, the media guidance applicationmay determine, from the user profile, that the user has used severalapplications (e.g., YouTube, Facebook, ESPN, etc.) in the span of thirtyminutes.

The media guidance application may determine, from the plurality ofapplications, usage statistics of the first application and the secondapplication. For example, suppose that the first application is Facebookand the second application is Instagram. The user's application usagehistory, found in the user profile, may indicate that Facebook wasopened ten times within 24 hours. For each of the ten times theapplication was accessed, the application usage history may indicate thetime stamp for when Facebook was opened, the event(s) the user was apart of (e.g., user viewed a photo), the effect of the event(s) onbandwidth conditions (e.g., how much bandwidth was consumed or freed),and the time stamp for when Facebook was closed. The media guidanceapplication may determine these usage statistics for any given period oftime (e.g., day, week, month, year, weekends only, weekdays only,evenings, mornings, etc.). The same process can be used to retrieveusage statistics of the second application (e.g., Instagram).

Based on the usage statistics of the first application and the secondapplication, the media guidance application may determine a firstlikelihood and a second likelihood, wherein the first likelihood is anindication that the media asset will be accessed using the firstapplication and the second likelihood is an indication that the mediaasset will be accessed using the second application. For example,Instagram has a feature that allows a user to post a media asset to bothFacebook and Instagram. The user therefore has the option to view themedia asset on either social media application. The media guidanceapplication may utilize usage statistics to determine the likelihood ofthe user accessing the media asset through Facebook and the likelihoodof the user accessing the media asset through Instagram. The likelihoodmay be computed using a probabilistic model that is a function of valuesincluding, but not limited to, the amount of times the user accessed anapplication, the duration of access, the priority of a media asset,metadata of the media asset and event, etc.

The usage statistics may include information about the events the userwas a part of in each application. For example, the usage statistics mayindicate that the user accessed Facebook ten times within 24 hours.During each access, the user may have viewed several videos. Incontrast, the user may have only opened Instagram once in 24 hours.Perhaps while accessing Instagram, the user may have only viewed his/heruser profile without viewing videos or photos. Likelihood may alsodepend on whether the user is already accessing one of the applications.For example, if the user has Facebook open when the event occurs, themedia guidance application may determine that the user is more likely toaccess the media asset associated with the event on Facebook. The mediaguidance application may then utilize an algorithm to quantify thelikelihood of using an application to access the media asset. Based onthe usage statistics, the media guidance application may determine thechances of the user accessing the media asset (e.g., a tagged video)through one of these applications. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the likelihood of the user viewing thevideo in which he/she is tagged is 75% through Facebook and 10% throughInstagram.

Upon determining that the first likelihood is greater than the secondlikelihood, the media guidance application may reduce the secondbandwidth limit by a first amount to increase the first bandwidth limitby the first amount. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine that the likelihood of viewing the tagged video on Facebook is75%, which is higher than the 10% likelihood of viewing on Instagram.Suppose that the first and second bandwidth limits (e.g., bandwidthlimits for Facebook and Instagram, respectively) are 10 Mbps each. Thefirst amount may be 8 Mbps, since a bandwidth of 18 Mbps is needed toaccess the tagged video. The media guidance application may thereforereduce the bandwidth limit of Instagram by 8 Mbps and increase thebandwidth limit of Facebook by 8 Mbps. As a result, the first and secondbandwidth limits may be 18 Mbps and 2 Mbps, respectively. Once the userhas completed viewing the tagged video, the media guidance applicationmay return both bandwidth limits to their original values. In someembodiments, the second bandwidth limit (e.g., Instagram's bandwidthlimit) may not be reduced because the network may have additionalavailable bandwidth that is not being used by any other application(s).For example, if the overall bandwidth limit is 100 Mbps and Twitter andFacebook are collectively consuming 20 Mbps, 80 Mbps is still availablefor use. The media guidance application may therefore increase the firstbandwidth limit to 18 Mbps, upon allocating 8 Mbps from the 80 Mbps.Instagram's bandwidth limit may therefore remain at 10 Mbps.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thatthe second bandwidth limit cannot be reduced as the second applicationis accessing a second media asset consuming bandwidth up to the secondbandwidth limit. For example, the media guidance application may detectthat the user is already accessing a second media asset, such as a livestream of a concert, on Instagram. If the second bandwidth limit is 10Mbps and the bandwidth being accessed by the live stream is also 10Mbps, the media guidance application may determine that the secondbandwidth limit cannot be reduced. Upon determining that the secondbandwidth limit cannot be reduced, the media guidance application maydetermine a first quality associated with a first bit consumption rateof the second media asset. For example, the viewer may be viewing thelive stream in high-definition (e.g., 720p), which requires a first bitconsumption rate of at least 10 Mbps. In response, the media guidanceapplication may reduce the quality of the second media asset from thefirst quality to a lower second quality, the second quality beingassociated with a second bit consumption rate lower than the first bitconsumption rate. For example, the media guidance application may reducethe quality of the live stream to standard definition (e.g., 480p). Thesecond bit consumption rate associated with the second quality may be atleast 5 Mbps. Therefore, the media guidance application is able to free5 Mbps from the bandwidth being consumed by the second application.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thatthe second bandwidth limit cannot be reduced, as the second applicationis accessing a second media asset consuming bandwidth up to the secondbandwidth limit and has a higher priority. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine that the user is currently viewing amedia asset associated with a hurricane alert on Yahoo Weather. Themedia asset may be a video with evacuation instructions. The mediaguidance application may refer to a priority list in the user's profilethat indicates that safety alerts are given a higher priority thansocial media posts. Therefore, the bandwidth limit for Yahoo Weather maynot be reduced in favor of the social media post.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may present the userwith an option to manually reduce the second bandwidth limit to satisfythe increase in bandwidth consumption of the first application. Forexample, the media guidance application may inform the user that thesecond application, Instagram, is using 10 Mbps of bandwidth, which canbe reduced to access the media asset on Facebook. In response toreceiving an input from the user, the media guidance application mayreduce the second bandwidth limit of the second application based on thereceived input. For example, the user may confirm that he/she wishes toreduce the second bandwidth limit of Instagram. The media guidanceapplication may then execute the reduction based on the user'sconfirmation.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may recommendapplications from which bandwidth may be borrowed, to make up for theadditional bandwidth that may be needed by the first application. Forexample, the first application may need 5 Mbps of additional bandwidth.The media guidance application may identify the applications that arerunning on the user's device and may determine the amount of bandwidthbeing utilized by each application. In a scenario in which twoapplications, Twitter and Instagram, have respective bandwidth limits, 5Mbps and 4 Mbps, the media guidance application may determine that theapplications are only accessing photos and are thus each utilizing 1Mbps of the total bandwidth. Accordingly, the media guidance applicationmay determine that the bandwidth limits of Twitter and Instagram can bereduced. The media guidance application may recommend reducing thebandwidth limit of Twitter and Instagram to the user, or mayautomatically reduce the bandwidth limits.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may stop the secondapplication from accessing content to free up the first amount ofbandwidth (e.g., the amount needed to access the media asset on thefirst application). Furthermore, the media guidance application mayrecord a position of the content where the access to content wasstopped. For example, the second application, Instagram, may bedisplaying a live stream of a concert. In the event that a notificationof a tagged video on Facebook is presented, and the user chooses to viewthe tagged video, the media guidance application may record where theuser left off at the live stream and prevent Instagram from consumingbandwidth to display the live stream. In some embodiments, the secondapplication resumes accessing content at a position substantiallysimilar to the recorded position. For example, once the user hasfinished viewing the tagged video on Facebook, the media guidanceapplication may resume the live stream on Instagram at the positionwhere the user left off.

In some embodiments, the second application is automatically allowed toaccess content when the first amount of bandwidth is available again.For example, Instagram may be able to display the live stream once thebandwidth consumed by Facebook to display the tagged video (e.g., 8Mbps) is freed. It should be noted that the first amount of bandwidthcan be freed from any other application as well; this is not limited tothe first application. For example, a third application such as Twittermay stop using 8 Mbps of the bandwidth, and Instagram may access thelive stream using this first amount.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may retrieve, fromthe user profile, a first plurality of media assets accessed by the userusing the first application. For example, the user profile may store alist of media assets that the user accesses on the first application,Facebook. These media assets may include a video of a baseball game, alive stream of a baseball game, a video of a baseball player, etc. Themedia guidance application may determine a first set of characteristicscommon to the first plurality of media assets. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine that the majority of the user's listis made up of videos of sports, specifically baseball. The mediaguidance application may retrieve, from the user profile, a secondplurality of media assets accessed by the user using the secondapplication. For example, the media guidance application may determinethat the user accesses photos of landmarks and skylines on Instagram.The media guidance application may determine a second set ofcharacteristics common to the second plurality of media assets. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine that the user'slist is made up of photos of objects. The media guidance application maydetermine a type of the media asset. Returning to an example givenpreviously, the media asset may be a live stream of a concert. The mediaguidance application may identify the media asset to be a live video.The media guidance application may compare the type to the first set ofcharacteristics and the second set of characteristics. For example, themedia guidance application may compare the live video type to the sportsvideo type and object photos type. Based on the comparison, the mediaguidance application may determine a first likelihood and a secondlikelihood. For example, the media guidance application may determinethat live videos correspond to sports videos more than object photos.Since the user mostly accesses videos on Facebook, the media guidanceapplication may assign a higher first likelihood (e.g., 80%) than thesecond likelihood (e.g., 20%).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may communicate thereduction in the second bandwidth limit, wherein the communication(e.g., a network control message) is sent over a first network differentfrom a second network over which the media asset is transmitted. Forexample, sending the instruction itself may consume bandwidth. Supposethat the media guidance application determines that the second bandwidthlimit needs to be reduced. Rather than communicating this change to theuser's local device over Wi-fi, the media guidance application maycommunicate the reduction over a cellular network. This may be crucialin situations where all available bandwidth is being consumed andanother network is needed to send instructions of the reduction. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may pre-allocate bandwidthfor sending control messages.

It should be noted that the systems, methods, apparatuses, and/oraspects described above may be applied to, or used in accordance with,other systems, methods, apparatuses, and/or aspects described in thisdisclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system that dynamically adapts networkperformance parameters for applications, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 2 is an illustrative example of a display screen that informs theuser of an event that matches the user's list of events, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 3 is an illustrative example of a display screen that requests userselection of an application to access a media asset associated with theevent, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 is an illustrative example of a display screen that informs theuser of bandwidth adjustments that may occur in response to selecting anapplication to access the media asset, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 is an illustrative example of a display screen that alerts theuser of bandwidth adjustments that cannot be made, in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure;

FIGS. 6 and 7 show illustrative examples of display screens generated bya media guidance application, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment device, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of an illustrative process for adjustingbandwidth limits of applications based on the application's usagelikelihood, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process for adjustingbandwidth limits of applications based on the application's usagelikelihood, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process for reducingbandwidth consumption of a second application, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process for detectingthe occurrence of an event and identifying associated media assets, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process fordetermining a first and second likelihood for a first and secondapplication, respectively, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure; and

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process fordetermining characteristics of media assets for comparison processes, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Systems and methods are described to address managing bandwidthconsumption of various applications in response to an external trigger.An external trigger is a component in the media guidance applicationthat detects an event and initiates a series of processes to efficientlypresent media to a user. The media guidance application may beimplemented on a server and/or at a user device (e.g., a set-top box).Consider an example in which a user is tagged in an MP4 format videoposted on social media. The media guidance application, on the server,may detect this event and execute steps such as identifying: a mediaasset associated with the event, an application through which the mediaasset can be accessed, and the amount of bandwidth needed to ensureaccess. The media asset can be, but is not limited to, a video, a photo,a stream, a song, etc. In this case, the media guidance application maydetermine that the media asset is the video in which the user is tagged.

Furthermore, the media guidance application may determine that the mediaasset can be accessed using social media applications such as Facebookand Instagram. The media guidance application may refer to the metadataof an application to determine the media assets that the application cansuccessfully open. For example, the metadata of YouTube may indicatecompatible media asset types such as MP4 and MPEG videos. On the otherhand, SoundCloud, a music streaming application, may be compatible onlywith MP3 format audio. In this case, the respective metadata of Facebookand Instagram may indicate compatibility with MP4 and MPEG videos.

The media guidance application may retrieve the bandwidth limits ofvarious applications on the user's local device. The bandwidth limit maybe the maximum bandwidth an application is allocated for utilization.For example, the media guidance application may measure that Facebookand Instagram are each consuming 5 megabits per second (Mbps) of a totalbandwidth of 10 Mbps in the network. The media guidance application mayfurther determine that the video, in which the user is tagged, requiresa bandwidth of 6 Mbps for playback. The media guidance application maycalculate, based on the user's usage statistics of the respectiveapplications, the likelihood that the user will access the video onFacebook and the likelihood that the user will access the video onInstagram. The likelihood may be a value such as a probability, afraction, a percentage, or a qualitative assessment (e.g., unlikely,likely, highly likely, etc.). It may be derived based on how frequentlyan application is used, the duration of access, network conditions, anduser preferences. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine that the user accesses Facebook on a daily basis and usesInstagram only once a month. In response, the media guidance applicationmay determine that Facebook has a higher likelihood (e.g., 70%) of beingaccessed than Instagram (e.g., 20%). The media guidance application maythen determine that Facebook needs an additional 1 Mbps of bandwidth tostream the video and may add 1 Mbps to Facebook's bandwidth limit byreducing Instagram's bandwidth limit by 1 Mbps.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles,books, electronic books, blogs, chat sessions, social media,applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/orcombination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users tonavigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computerreadable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable ofstoring data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including,but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals,or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk,floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processorcaches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are able to access media on personal computers(PCs) and devices on which they traditionally could not.Non-television-centric platforms (i.e., platforms that distribute mediawith equipment not part of the user's broadcast, cable or satellitetelevision-delivery network) allow users to navigate among and locatedesirable video clips, full motion videos (which may include televisionprograms), images, music files, and other suitable media. Consequently,media guidance is also necessary on modern non-television-centricplatforms. For example, media guidance applications may be provided ason-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or as stand-aloneapplications or clients on hand-held computers, personal digitalassistants (PDAs) or cellular telephones. In some systems, users maycontrol equipment remotely via a media guidance application. Forexample, users may access an online media guide and set recordings orother settings on their in home equipment. This may be accomplished bythe on-line guide controlling the user's equipment directly or viaanother media guide that runs on the user's equipment. Remote access ofinteractive media guidance applications is discussed in greater detailin U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/246,392, filed Oct. 7, 2005,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system that dynamically adapts networkperformance parameters for applications, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. FIG. 1 is split into two sections,broadcast server and set-top box. It should be noted that the twosections are not limited to being a broadcast server and set-top box.For example, any server that can communicate with any device used toaccess a media asset by the user (e.g., wireless communication device,computer equipment, etc.) is also applicable to FIG. 1. Furthermore,multiple servers can be used in combination rather than one server. Theserver can be any device that provides a service, such as file retrievalfor a client, such as the user's local device. The server can beconnected to the user's local area network (LAN) as a remote accessserver (RAS), or may be a part of the local area network itself (e.g., aLAN server). For example, the server can be a computer in a LAN network,a database server that processes database queries, a cloud server thatprovides services on demand over the Internet, a dedicated file serverthat stores files, or any device that can provide services to a clientdevice remotely.

External trigger 102 may be dedicated hardware composed of controlcircuitry 804 (discussed in FIG. 8), or a process executed by control104. External trigger 102 may monitor incoming network packets from theInternet that refer to the user's local device as the destination IPaddress. External trigger 102 may parse these data packets by extractingthe data in the payload of the network packet. For example, the payloadof the network packet may indicate that the network packet is a messageassociated with Facebook. Based on the extract data, external trigger102 may determine events associated with the user. These events do notnecessarily need to be a part of the user's list of events, whichincludes events that the user is particularly interested in. Forexample, the external trigger 102 may detect events such as a socialmedia post, a weather update, a sports update, a video message, etc.Suppose that the external trigger 102 detects that a video in which theuser is tagged has been posted on Facebook and Instagram. Simultaneousposting of the same photo is possible because Instagram and Facebookallow photos/videos to be uploaded to both platforms with the same tags,descriptions, and time stamps.

The external trigger 102 sends event information, such as event type,description, time stamp, associated application name, etc. to the servercontrol 104. Control 104 may be the central processer of the server andmay be implemented by control circuitry 804 (discussed in FIG. 8).Control 104 accepts information from the external trigger 102 andfilters events that are relevant to the user. To determine relevance,control 104 accesses the user's profile from storage 808 (described inFIG. 8) to retrieve a list of events selected by the user. The list ofevents includes information about events that the user is interested in,or has given priority to. For example, the user may be interested insocial media posts in which he/she is tagged. Control 104 determineswhether the events sent by the external trigger 102 correspond to theevents in the list. More specifically, control 104 extracts metadataassociated with an event such as event type, keywords, associatedapplications and descriptions from the payloads of each data packetassociated with the event. Control 104 also extracts metadata associatedwith the each of the events in the user's list of events from storage808. Control 104 compares the metadata of the detected event with eachmetadata of the events in the list of events in order to determine amatch. For example, the metadata may indicate applications associatedwith the event. Suppose that one of the events in the user's list ofevents has metadata that indicates an application association withFacebook and Instagram. Suppose that the metadata also lists the eventtype as a social media tag, and the description as an MP4 video. If theevent detected by external trigger 102 has metadata including these sameproperties, control 104 may determine that the detected event matchesthe event in the list of events. In this case, control 104 may alsodetermine from these properties, that the media asset is a social mediaMP4 video in which the user is tagged.

Upon determining that at least one of the events sent by the externaltrigger 102 corresponds to the list of events, control 104 sends eventinformation to measurements 106. Measurements 106 is a block that may bededicated hardware implemented by control circuitry 804 (discussed inFIG. 8), or a process of control 104. Measurements 106 monitorsapplications to determine each respective bandwidth limit. For example,control 104 may send information about an event involving a tagged photoposted on Facebook and Instagram to measurements 106. Measurements 106may retrieve the bandwidth limits from a bandwidth consumption database.It may further update the bandwidth consumption database based onapplication usage statistics. Specifically, it may monitor the bandwidthutilized by all applications during various events. For example, whendisplaying a high-definition video, measurements 106 may determine thatFacebook utilizes a bandwidth of 6 Mbps. Measurements 106 may runmultiple tests to determine the amount of bandwidth needed to performvarious tasks for events. In some embodiments, the tests may involvemeasuring bandwidth limits of each of a plurality of instances of thefirst application running over a plurality of devices. Measurements 106may determine the current bandwidth conditions, and a bandwidth limitfor each application associated with the event sent by control 104. Forexample, measurements 106 may determine that the bandwidth limit forFacebook is 4 Mbps and the bandwidth limit for Instagram is 3 Mbps, andmay determine the usage statistics for each application. The usagestatistics may include information about the events the user was a partof in each application. For example, the usage statistics may indicatethat the user accessed Facebook forty times within seven days. Duringeach access, the user may have viewed several videos. In contrast, theuser may have only opened Instagram three times in seven days. Perhapswhile accessing Instagram, the user may have only viewed his/her userprofile without viewing videos or photos. Measurements 106 may retrievethis usage data from storage 808 (discussed in FIG. 8) and send theinformation to control 104.

In response to receiving information about application usage statisticsand the bandwidth limits for the applications associated with the mediaasset, control 104 may determine a first likelihood and a secondlikelihood. The first likelihood is an indication that the media assetwill be accessed using the first application and the second likelihoodis an indication that the media asset will be accessed using the secondapplication. In this example, the media asset is the tagged video, thefirst application is Facebook, and the second application is Instagram.Control 104 may utilize usage statistics to determine the likelihood ofthe user accessing the media asset through Facebook and the likelihoodof the user accessing the media asset through Instagram. Control 104 maycompute the likelihood using a probabilistic model that is a function ofvalues including, but not limited to, the amount of times the useraccessed an application, the duration of access, the priority of a mediaasset, metadata of the media asset and event, etc. Likelihood may alsodepend on whether the user is already accessing one of the applications.For example, if the user has Facebook open when the event occurs,control 104 may detect that the user is accessing Facebook and maydetermine that the user is more likely to access the media assetassociated with the event on Facebook. Control 104 may then utilize analgorithm to quantify the likelihood of using an application to accessthe media asset.

Based on the usage statistics and current application usage information,control 104 may determine the chances of the user accessing the mediaasset (e.g., tagged video) through one of these applications. Forexample, control 104 may determine that the likelihood of the userviewing the video in which he/she is tagged via Facebook is 75% and 10%via Instagram.

Control 104 then sends likelihood values to B/W (bandwidth) Control 108.B/W Control 108 may be dedicated hardware implemented with controlcircuitry 804 (discussed in FIG. 8), or it may be a process of control104. B/W Control 108 analyzes, assigns, and frees bandwidth from theuser's household network. For example, B/W Control 108 may determinethat the total bandwidth in the household or accessible to the user(e.g., 20 Mbps) is being divided across five applications: Facebook,Instagram, Twitter, Netflix, and Yahoo Weather. Based on the likelihoodvalues determined by control 104, B/W Control 108 may determine that thebandwidth consumption values need to be adjusted. For example,Facebook's first bandwidth limit may be 4 Mbps. Instagram's secondbandwidth limit may be 3 Mbps. The likelihood values may indicate thatthe user is more likely going to access the tagged video, which requiresa bandwidth of 6 Mbps to view, on Facebook. B/W Control 108 maydetermine that the first bandwidth limit needs to be increased by 2 Mbps(e.g., the first amount), in order to access the media asset. Sincethere is no available bandwidth in the network, B/W Control 108 maydecrease the second bandwidth limit by 2 Mbps and add it to the firstbandwidth limit. This would allow the user to view the tagged video onFacebook.

B/W Control 108 then communicates these changes to a communicationcontrol 110. Communication control 110 may be dedicated hardwareimplemented by control circuitry 804 (discussed in FIG. 8) or a processof control 104. Communication control 110 serves as a communicationbridge between the broadcast server and the set-top box in this example.In some embodiments, the communication control 110 may pre-allocate asmall amount of bandwidth to carry control messages. In someembodiments, the communication control 110 may use an alternatecommunication medium to transfer messages between the server and set-topbox. For example, if the first network is based on Wi-Fi (e.g., formedia delivery), communication control 110 may use cellular data forcommunication.

The set-top box's control 112 receives control messages from thebroadcast server's communication control 110. Control 112 may be thecentral processer of the set-top box and may be implemented usingcontrol circuitry 804 (discussed in FIG. 8). The control messages mayindicate that appropriate changes have been made to bandwidth limits toallow the user to access the media application in the first application.Control 112 may then allow the user to resume/start/pause/stop the mediaasset when accessing on application 114.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may notautomatically adjust the bandwidth at B/W Control 108. For example,Control 104 may determine that the first and second likelihoods are thesame. Control 104 may also generate a threshold likelihood. Thethreshold likelihood may be the minimum difference required between twolikelihoods, in order for B/W Control 108 to automatically adjustbandwidth limits. For example, the threshold likelihood may be 10%. Ifthe first likelihood is 60% and the second likelihood is 55%, thedifference between the two likelihoods is only 5%. Control 104 maydetermine that this difference is not higher than the thresholdlikelihood and may request that the user decide which application he/shewants to use to access the media asset.

In some embodiments, the user may select an option on the media guidanceapplication which requires the media guidance application to prompt theuser of new events and allow the user to manually select theapplications he/she wishes to use. Suppose that the user is accessingthe application Twitter. Event trigger 102 may detect a new social mediapost (e.g., a photo post) that can be accessed on Facebook andInstagram. Information about the social media post may be sent tocontrol 104 (FIG. 1) by external trigger 102. Control 104 may thencompare the event to the user's list of events. If the user indicates inhis/her list of events that the he/she wishes to be informed about newsocial media posts, control 104 may determine that the event correspondsto the user's list of events. For example, the list of events maycontain an event type “social media post,” which matches the new event.Control 104 may also identify the media asset and the applications thatcan present the media asset based on the event's metadata. Control 104then communicates with measurement 106 (FIG. 1) to retrieve usagestatistics and bandwidth limits. This information is used by control 104to generate usage likelihoods for each application that can present themedia asset to the user. Control 104 then communicates directly withcommunication control 110 (FIG. 1) to inform the user of the new event.Control 112 (FIG. 1) accepts the control message from communicationcontrol 110 and generates an overlay 204 (FIG. 2) on application 114(FIG. 1).

It is contemplated that the blocks or descriptions of FIG. 1 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the blocksand descriptions described in relation to FIG. 1 may be done inalternative orders or in parallel to further the purposes of thisdisclosure. For example, each of these blocks may be performed in anyorder, in combination with each other, in parallel, or substantiallysimultaneously to reduce lag or increase the speed of the system ormethod. The blocks may be implemented in whole or in part by the serverand/or the user's local device (e.g., set-top box). Any of these stepsmay also be skipped or omitted from the process. Furthermore, it shouldbe noted that any of the devices or equipment discussed in relation toFIGS. 8-9 could be used to perform one or more of the blocks in FIG. 1.

FIG. 2 is an illustrative example of a display screen 200 that informsthe user of an event that matches the user's list of events. Control 112(FIG. 1) may generate display 202, which represents an application thatthe user is using. Overlay 204 is an alert that informs the user of theevent's occurrence and provides options for the user. Button 206 “Open”initiates the process in control 112 to allow the user to access themedia asset. Button 208 “Dismiss” closes overlay 204 without additionalactions.

In this example, control 112 (FIG. 1) generates display 202, whichpresents the Twitter interface being accessed by the user. B/W Control108 (FIG. 1) may determine that Twitter is utilizing bandwidth in theWi-Fi network of the household. Suppose that B/W Control 108 determinesthat no free bandwidth is available because various applications,including Twitter, are collectively consuming the total bandwidth.Communication control 110 (FIG. 1) may send a control message, usingcellular data, to control 112 to generate overlay 204.

Overlay 204 provides the user with information about the new event.Overlay 204 may include the event name and the media asset associatedwith the event. For example, overlay 204 states “New Social Network PostDetected (Video).” In this case, the event is the new social networkpost and the media asset is the video. If the user chooses to access themedia asset, he/she may select button 206 “Open,” and if the user doesnot choose to access the media asset, he/she may select button 208“Dismiss.” Suppose that the user selects “Open.” The user's response maybe accepted on the user interface 810 through I/O path 802. Controlcircuitry 804 (discussed in FIG. 8) may then initiate the process ofdetermining whether the social media post can be accessed given theuser's household bandwidth conditions. As mentioned previously, control104 may determine applications that are listed in the metadata of theevent detected by external trigger 102. For example, Facebook andInstagram may be able to access the tagged video associated with thesocial media post. Control 104 may thus calculate the likelihoods of theuser accessing the media asset through each listed application based onusage statistics. Suppose that the usage statistics retrieved by control104 (FIG. 1) from measurements 106 (FIG. 1) indicate that the userprimarily uses Facebook to access all social media posts associated withvideos (e.g., perhaps the user does not use Instagram, even thoughInstagram is installed on the user's device). Control 104 may determinethat the likelihood of accessing the video on Facebook is 90% and thelikelihood of accessing the video on Instagram is 5%.

FIG. 3 is an illustrative example of a display screen 300 that requestsuser selection of an application to access a media asset associated withthe event. Control 112 (FIG. 1) may generate display 302, which depictsthe application described in display 202 (e.g., Twitter). The overlay304 is generated by control 112 in response to the user selecting button206 “Open” on overlay 204 (FIG. 2). Overlay 304 lists all applicationsthat can be used to access the media asset associated with the event.Application selector 306 highlights the application, selected by theuser, as the mode of access to the media asset. The user may move theapplication selector 306 to highlight the other applications listed inoverlay 304. The user may then confirm his/her selection by selectingbutton 308 “OK” via I/O path 802 on user interface 810 (discussed inFIG. 8).

In some embodiments, the list of applications on overlay 304 are orderedbased on likelihoods. Therefore, the media guidance application may listFacebook above Instagram on overlay 304 (FIG. 3) because the likelihoodof Facebook, as determined by control 104, is greater than Instagram'slikelihood. The media guidance application may receive user input ofapplication selector 306 hovering over Facebook and selecting button 308to confirm Facebook as the selection.

I/O path 802 (discussed in FIG. 8) may send the user's selection tocontrol 112 via communication control 110 (FIG. 1), which further sendsthe control message indicating the user's selection to B/W Control 108(FIG. 1). B/W Control 108 may monitor the total bandwidth in the networkand determine the amount of free bandwidth (e.g., bandwidth not beingutilized in the network). B/W Control 108 may also determine how toadjust the bandwidth distribution in order to allow the user to accessthe media asset on the application selected by the user. For example,B/W Control 108 may determine that the total bandwidth in the network is10 Mbps and that three applications are utilizing bandwidth. Supposethat Facebook is utilizing 2 Mbps, Instagram is utilizing 1 Mbps, andTwitter is utilizing the remaining 7 Mbps. B/W Control 108 may determinefrom the media asset's metadata that in order to access the social mediapost on Facebook, at least 4 Mbps is required. B/W Control 108 maydetermine to reduce the bandwidth limit for Instagram by 0.5 Mbps andthe bandwidth limit for Twitter by 1.5 Mbps. Thus, an additional 2 Mbpscan potentially be available for Facebook to utilize. B/W Control 108may then send a control message to communication control 110 about thepotential adjustments to the bandwidths. Communication control 110forwards this message to control 112, which generates an alert for theuser described in FIG. 4.

FIG. 4 is an illustrative example of the display screen 400 that informsthe user of bandwidth adjustments that may occur in response toselecting an application to access the media asset. Display 402,generated by control 112, may continue presenting the applicationcurrently accessed by the user (e.g., Twitter). In the example, overlay404, which is also generated by control 112, informs the user that“opening using Facebook will reduce bandwidth of Twitter and Instagram.”This message is generated by control 112 in response to the proposedchanges to bandwidth made by B/W Control 108 (FIG. 1). The user mayselect button 406 “Proceed” to allow B/W Control 108 to execute theproposed changes. The user may also decide against the proposed changesand select button 408 “Cancel.” The user's responses are accepted by I/Opath 802 on user interface 810 (discussed in FIG. 8).

Suppose that the user chooses to accept the proposed changes and selectsbutton 406. Control 112 (FIG. 1) directs a control message throughcommunication control 110 (FIG. 1) to B/W Control 108 to execute theproposed changes to the bandwidths. For example, B/W Control 108 mayreduce the bandwidth limit of Instagram by 0.5 Mbps. B/W Control 108 mayalso reduce the bandwidth limit of Twitter by 1.5 Mbps. B/W Control 108may then add the freed bandwidth to the bandwidth limit of Facebook.Thus, the bandwidth limit of Facebook becomes 4 Mbps, which meets thebandwidth requirement for accessing the video in the social media post.

In some embodiments, control 112 may receive the proposed changes tobandwidths made by B/W Control 108 and determine that the applicationcurrently being accessed by the user cannot function if the proposedchanges are executed. For example, the Twitter application may beaccessing a video for display to the user. The video's metadata mayindicate requirement of a bandwidth of at least 7 Mbps. If Twitter'sbandwidth limit is 7 Mbps, and no free bandwidth is available, control112 may determine that Twitter's bandwidth limit cannot be reduced. Ifthe proposed changes made by B/W Control 108 involve reducing Twitter'sbandwidth limit, control 112 may request the user for a decision on howto handle the proposal, as presented in FIG. 5.

FIG. 5 is an illustrative example of the display screen 500 that alertsthe user of bandwidth adjustments that cannot be made. Display 502 maypresent that application that the user is currently accessing. Overlay504 presents the alert to the user. For example, overlay 504 may state“bandwidth of Twitter cannot be reduced” and then provide options to theuser to respond to the alert. Response selector 506 can be hovered overthe different responses to indicate the response the user selects.Button 508 confirms the selection made by the user.

In the example, overlay 504 lists two options to respond to the alert.The first response is quitting Twitter. This option will close theapplication entirely and free up all bandwidth utilized by Twitter. Uponselecting button 508 “OK,” control 112 (FIG. 1) sends B/W Control 108(FIG. 1) a control message, to release the bandwidth utilized byTwitter, through communications control 110 (FIG. 1). B/W Control 108may prioritize utilizing free bandwidth to add to the bandwidth limit ofthe application selected by the user. For example, B/W Control 108 maydetermine that 7 Mbps of bandwidth is now available. Therefore,Instagram's bandwidth limit does not need to be decreased. Instead, 2Mbps from the free bandwidth can be added to Facebook's bandwidth limit.

The user may also select the second option “continue running bothTwitter & Facebook.” Upon determining that a bandwidth limit cannot bereduced, control 112 (FIG. 1) may determine a first quality associatedwith a first bit consumption rate of the second media asset. In thiscase, the second media asset is the media asset being accessed onTwitter. For example, the viewer may be viewing a video on Twitter inhigh-definition (e.g., 720p), which requires a first bit consumptionrate of at least 7 Mbps. In response, control 112 may reduce the qualityof the second media asset from the first quality (e.g., 720p) to asecond quality (e.g., 480p), which is associated with a second bitconsumption rate (e.g., that is lower than the first bit consumptionrate). For example, the control 112 may reduce the quality of the videoto standard definition (e.g., 480p). The second bit consumption rateassociated with the second quality may be at least 4 Mbps. Therefore,control 112 is able to free 3 Mbps from the bandwidth being consumed byTwitter. Control 112 can send a control message, indicating the increasein bandwidth and the user's request to run both applications, to B/WControl 108 through communication control 110. In response, B/W Control108 may allocate 1.5 Mbps of the 3 Mbps that are freed to Facebook'sbandwidth limit. It may also maintain Instagram's bandwidth limit at 1Mbps and instead allocate 2 Mbps of the 3 Mbps to Facebook's bandwidthlimit. This allows control 112 to run both Twitter and Facebooksimultaneously.

FIGS. 6-7 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 6-7 may beimplemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While thedisplays of FIGS. 6-7 are illustrated as full screen displays, they mayalso be fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A usermay indicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media guidancedata organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in agrid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories ofprogramming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organizationcriteria.

FIG. 6 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 600arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 600 may include grid 602 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 604, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 606, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 602 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 608, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 610. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 610 may be provided inprogram information region 612. Region 612 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 602 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 614, recorded content listing 616, andInternet content listing 618. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 600 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings614, 616, and 618 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 602 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 602. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 620. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 620.)

Display 600 may also include video region 622, and options region 626.Video region 622 may allow the user to view and/or preview programs thatare currently available, will be available, or were available to theuser. The content of video region 622 may correspond to, or beindependent from, one of the listings displayed in grid 602. Griddisplays including a video region are sometimes referred to aspicture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and their functionalitiesare described in greater detail in Satterfield et al. U.S. Pat. No.6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,794,issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated by reference hereinin their entireties. PIG displays may be included in other mediaguidance application display screens of the embodiments describedherein.

Options region 626 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 626 may be part of display 600 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 626 may concern features related to program listings in grid 602or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.Tivo.com, from other media guidance applicationsthe user accesses, from other interactive applications the useraccesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.), and/orobtain information about the user from other sources that the mediaguidance application may access. As a result, a user can be providedwith a unified guidance application experience across the user'sdifferent user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 9. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 7. Video mosaic display 700 includes selectable options 702 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 700, television listings option 704 isselected, thus providing listings 706, 708, 710, and 712 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 700 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 708 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 714 and text portion 716.Media portion 714 and/or text portion 716 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 714 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 700 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 706 islarger than listings 708, 710, and 712), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 8 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 800. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 9.User equipment device 800 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 802. I/O path 802 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 804, which includesprocessing circuitry 806 and storage 808. Control circuitry 804 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 802. I/O path 802 may connect control circuitry 804 (andspecifically processing circuitry 806) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 8 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 804 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 806. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 804 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 808). Specifically, control circuitry 804 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 804 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 804 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 804 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 9). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 808 thatis part of control circuitry 804. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 808 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 9, may be used to supplementstorage 808 or instead of storage 808.

Control circuitry 804 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 804 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 800. Circuitry 804 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 808 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 800, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 808.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 804 using user inputinterface 810. User input interface 810 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 812 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 800. For example, display 812 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 810may be integrated with or combined with display 812. Display 812 may beone or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD)for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, activematrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathoderay tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescentdisplay, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display,thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display,surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television,carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulatordisplay, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images.In some embodiments, display 812 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 812 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 812.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry804. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 804.Speakers 814 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 800 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 812 may be played throughspeakers 814. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers814.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 800. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage808), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 804 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 808 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 804 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 810. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 810 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 800 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 800. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 804 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 804) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 800. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 800.Equipment device 800 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 810 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 800 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 810.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 800 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 804). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 804 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 804. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 804. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 800 of FIG. 8 can be implemented in system 900 ofFIG. 9 as user television equipment 902, user computer equipment 904,wireless user communications device 906, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 8 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 902, user computer equipment 904, or awireless user communications device 906. For example, user televisionequipment 902 may, like some user computer equipment 904, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 904 may, like some television equipment 902, includea tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 904, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 906.

In system 900, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 9 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 902, user computer equipment 904, wireless user communicationsdevice 906) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.Tivo.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 914.Namely, user television equipment 902, user computer equipment 904, andwireless user communications device 906 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 914 via communications paths 908, 910, and 912, respectively.Communications network 914 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 908, 910, and 912 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 912 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 9 it is awireless path and paths 908 and 910 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be providedby one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a singlepath in FIG. 9 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 908, 910, and 912, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 914.

System 900 includes content source 916 and media guidance data source918 coupled to communications network 914 via communication paths 920and 922, respectively. Paths 920 and 922 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 908, 910,and 912. Communications with the content source 916 and media guidancedata source 918 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 9 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 916 and media guidance data source 918, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 9 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 916 and media guidance data source 918 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 916 and 918 withuser equipment devices 902, 904, and 906 are shown as throughcommunications network 914, in some embodiments, sources 916 and 918 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 902, 904, and 906 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 908, 910, and 912.

Content source 916 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 916 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 916 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 916 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 918 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 918may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 918 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 918 mayprovide user equipment devices 902, 904, and 906 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions that entice the user tokeep the particular service or source indicated by the score as one towhich the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 808, and executedby control circuitry 804 of a user equipment device 800. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 804 of user equipment device 800and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 918) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 918), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 918 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices902, 904, and 906 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 900 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 9.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 914.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. PatentPublication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 916 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 902 and user computer equipment 904may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 906 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 914. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 916 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 918. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 902, user computer equipment 904, and wirelessuser communications device 906. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 904 or wireless usercommunications device 906 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 904. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 914. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 8.

As referred herein, the term “in response to” refers to initiated as aresult of. For example, a first action being performed in response to asecond action may include interstitial steps between the first actionand the second action. As referred herein, the term “directly inresponse to” refers to caused by. For example, a first action beingperformed directly in response to a second action may not includeinterstitial steps between the first action and the second action.

It should be noted that the controls discussed in FIG. 1, includingexternal trigger 102, control 104, measurements 106, B/W Control 108,communication control 110, and control 112, may each have controlcircuitry 804 (FIG. 8) components. In some embodiments, the controls mayalso collectively share the same control circuitry 804 components. Forexample, the media guidance application on the broadcast server may havecontrol circuitry 804 and the media guidance application on the set-topbox may have its own control circuitry 804. This allows the controls toprocess and store data accordingly.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of illustrative steps of a process 1000 foradjusting bandwidth limits of applications based on the application'susage likelihood, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.It should be noted that process 1000 or any step thereof could beperformed on, or provided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 8-9. Forexample, process 1000 may be executed by control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8)as instructed by a media guidance application implemented on a userdevice (e.g., user equipment devices 902, 904, and/or 906 (FIG. 9)) inorder to adjust bandwidth limits of applications based on theapplication's usage likelihood. In addition, one or more steps ofprocess 1000 may be incorporated into or combined with one or more stepsof any other process or embodiment (e.g., as described in relation toFIGS. 1 and 11-15).

At step 1002, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of B/W Control 108 (FIG. 1)sets a first bandwidth limit for a first application and a secondbandwidth limit for a second application. As discussed previously, abandwidth limit represents the maximum bandwidth an application canutilize. Control circuitry 804 refers to storage 808 of measurements 106to retrieve usage statistics. Based on usage statistics, controlcircuitry 804 may set the first bandwidth limit and the second bandwidthlimit accordingly, in a bandwidth limit database in storage 808 of B/WControl 108. For example, control circuitry 804 may determine that theusage statistics indicate that the first application (e.g., Facebook)uses 5 Mbps when streaming videos, a media asset that the user primarilyaccesses. Therefore, the first bandwidth limit may be set to 5 Mbps.

At step 1004, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of external trigger 102(FIG. 1) detects an event of interest to a user. For example, controlcircuitry 804 may monitor incoming network packets with the user's IPaddress as the destination. Control circuitry 804 may parse the payloadof each network packet to determine an event. For example, controlcircuitry 804 may detect a social media status update. Control circuitry804 may then refer to storage 808 of control 104 to retrieve a list ofevents. The list of events may indicate that the user is interested inbeing notified about social media posts. Control circuitry 804 mayextract metadata associated with each event in the list of events alongwith the detected events. Suppose that the metadata indicates that thedetected event's event type is social media post and the associatedapplications are Twitter and Facebook. Furthermore, suppose that thelist of events contains an event with the same metadata. Controlcircuitry 804 may determine that the detected event matches an event inthe list of events. Therefore, the detected event is of interest to theuser.

At step 1006, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of control 104 (FIG. 1)identifies a media asset associated with the event. Control circuitry804 may refer to the payloads of network packets to determine the typeof media assets associated with the event. For example, controlcircuitry 804 may determine that the media asset associated with thesocial media status update is a combination of text and graphics (e.g.,photos, emojis, GIF, etc.) based on the information in the payload ofthe network packet. Control circuitry 804 may also refer to the metadataof an application that is associated with the event to determine thetype of events associated with the application. For example, anapplication such as YouTube may indicate that compatible media assetsare videos. Therefore, control circuitry 804 may determine that eventsassociated with YouTube are also associated with media assets that arevideos.

At step 1008, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of control 104 (FIG. 1)determines a first likelihood that the media asset will be accessedusing the first application and a second likelihood that the media assetwill be accessed using the second application. Control circuitry 804 mayretrieve usage statistics from storage 808 of measurements 106 todetermine respective likelihoods. For example, control circuitry 804 maydetermine that the usage statistics of the first application (e.g.,Facebook) indicate daily usage and the usage statistics of a secondapplication (e.g., Twitter) indicate that it is rarely used (e.g., oncea year). Control circuitry 804 may utilize a probabilistic model todetermine that the user has a 99% likelihood of accessing the mediaasset on Facebook and 1% likelihood of accessing the media asset onTwitter.

At step 1010, in response to determining that the first likelihood isgreater than the second likelihood, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) ofB/W Control 108 (FIG. 1) reduces the second bandwidth limit by a firstamount to increase the first bandwidth limit by the first amount.Suppose that the media asset requires a bandwidth of 2.5 Mbps. In orderto access the media asset on Facebook, the first bandwidth limit needsto be increased by a first amount of 0.5 Mbps. Control circuitry 804 maydecrease the second bandwidth limit by 0.5 Mbps and increase the firstbandwidth limit by 0.5 Mbps in a bandwidth limit database.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 10 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 10 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Any of these steps may also be skipped oromitted from the process. Furthermore, it should be noted that any ofthe devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 8-9 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 10.

In previous examples, the media guidance application primarily dealtwith social media applications that share the same media assets (e.g.,Facebook and Instagram share photos and videos). However, it should benoted that the media guidance application is effective in adjustingbandwidth limits for non-related media applications. For example, oneapplication may deal with video streaming and another may deal with newsupdates. Accordingly, the media assets associated with the firstapplication may be video streams and the media assets associated withthe second application may be photos, news stories and videos.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of illustrative steps of a process 1100 foradjusting bandwidth limits of applications based on the application'susage likelihood, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.It should be noted that process 1100 or any step thereof could beperformed on, or provided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 8-9. Forexample, process 1100 may be executed by control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8)as instructed by a media guidance application implemented on a userdevice (e.g., user equipment devices 902, 904, and/or 906 (FIG. 9)) inorder to adjust bandwidth limits of applications based on theapplication's usage likelihood. In addition, one or more steps ofprocess 1100 may be incorporated into or combined with one or more stepsof any other process or embodiment (e.g., as described in relation toFIGS. 1, 10, 12-15).

At step 1102, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of B/W Control 108 (FIG. 1)sets, at the server, a first bandwidth limit for a first application anda second bandwidth limit for a second application, based on measuringbandwidth consumption for the first and second applicationsrespectively. For example, suppose that the first application is ESPNand the second application is Yahoo Weather. Control circuitry 804 mayretrieve usage statistics of ESPN and Yahoo Weather from storage 808 ofmeasurements 106. The usage statistics are generated by controlcircuitry 804 of measurements 106, which monitors user activity. Whileusage statistics may account for user-specific application usage, if theuser does not have history of usage, the usage statistics may be basedon multiple test results from multiple set-top boxes for various users(e.g., other users in the household or users in the same geographicregion). Based on how often an application is used, the types of mediaassets accessed, and the bandwidth utilized per usage, B/W Control 108may set, for example, the first bandwidth limit for ESPN as 5 Mbps.Likewise, the second bandwidth limit for Yahoo Weather may be 1 Mbps.

At step 1104, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of external trigger 102(FIG. 1) detects, at the server, an occurrence of an event. For example,control circuitry 804 may monitor incoming network packets and parse thepayloads of each packet that have the destination set to the user's IPaddress. Based on the data in the payloads of a combination of networkpackets (e.g., a complete message may be split across multiple networkpackets), control circuitry 804 may determine an event (e.g., a weatheralert of an approaching hurricane). External trigger 102 may communicatewith control 104 to determine whether the event is of interest to theuser.

At step 1106, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of control 104 (FIG. 1)retrieves a user profile for a user, wherein the user profile comprisesa list of events the user wishes to be notified about. Control circuitry804 may access a user profile from storage 808 that includes informationabout the applications the user has accessed, the duration of access,time stamps, and a list of events the user is interested in. Forexample, the list of events may indicate that user is interested insocial media posts, news updates, weather updates, and live streams.

At step 1108, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of control 104 (FIG. 1)determines whether the event matches the list of events. For example,control circuitry 804 may extract the metadata associated with theevent. The metadata may indicate the type and the description of theevent. Control circuitry 804 may determine that the event detected is aweather update based on the metadata. Upon referring to the user's listof events, control circuitry 804 may determine that the event matchesthe list of events.

At step 1110, in response to determining that the event matches the listof events, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of control 104 (FIG. 1)identifies a media asset associated with the event. If control circuitry804 (FIG. 8) of control 104 (FIG. 1) determines that the event does notmatch the list of events, the process returns to step 1104 and maydetect a new event. For example, control circuitry 804 may determinethat the weather alert is an interactive media interface (e.g., mediaasset) that provides real-time details about the hurricane such astrajectory, classification, wind strength, rainfall estimations, etc.

At step 1112, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of control 104 (FIG. 1)retrieves, from the user profile, a plurality of applications used bythe user. For example, measurements 106 may have storage 808 with anapplication database that lists all of the applications used by theuser.

At step 1114, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of measurements 106(FIG. 1) determines, from the plurality of applications, usagestatistics of the first application and the second application. Theapplication database may also provide information about usagestatistics. For example, the database may indicate that the useraccesses ESPN every day for two hours between 8:00 pm and 10:00 pm.Furthermore, the database may indicate that Yahoo Weather is used on adaily basis in the mornings for one minute between 9:00 am and 9:01 am.

At step 1116, based on the usage statistics of the first application andthe second application, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of control 104(FIG. 1) determines a first likelihood and a second likelihood, whereinthe first likelihood is an indication that the media asset will beaccessed using the first application and the second likelihood is anindication that the media asset will be accessed using the secondapplication. In some embodiments, control 104 may have storage 808,which includes an event database that lists different types of eventsand identifies their associated applications. In the example given, aweather update may not be associated with ESPN. Instead, events such asgame updates, player profiles and game highlights may be associated withESPN. Control circuitry 804 may therefore determine that weather updatesare only accessible on Yahoo Weather and not ESPN. The second likelihood(e.g., weather update being accessed by Yahoo Weather) may be 99% andthe first likelihood (e.g., weather update being accessed by ESPN) maybe 1%.

However, it is possible that ESPN can provide weather updates in thecontext of sporting events (e.g., game cancellations due to hurricane).In this case, control circuitry 804 may determine, based on the usagestatistics, that ESPN is accessed for weather update media alerts only1% of the time (e.g., out of 100 hours of ESPN access, only 1 hour wasdevoted to stories related to weather). In contrast, Yahoo Weather maysolely be used for weather updates 100% of the time. These usagestatistics may be used by control circuitry 804 to determine that thefirst likelihood is 10% and the second likelihood is 90%.

At step 1118, upon determining the first likelihood is greater than thesecond likelihood, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of B/W Control 108(FIG. 1) reduces, at the server, the second bandwidth limit by a firstamount to increase the first bandwidth limit by a first amount. Supposethe media asset, the interactive media interface of the hurricanetracker, requires 5 Mbps of bandwidth to function normally. Thebandwidth limit for Yahoo Weather may be 1 Mbps and the bandwidth limitfor ESPN may be 5 Mbps. Furthermore, the network may not have additionalfree bandwidth. Control circuitry 804 may therefore reduce the bandwidthlimit for ESPN by 4 Mbps, the first amount, and add it to the bandwidthlimit of Yahoo Weather. Thus, the bandwidth limits become 1 Mbps and 5Mbps, respectively.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 11 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 11 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Any of these steps may also be skipped oromitted from the process. Furthermore, it should be noted that any ofthe devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 8-9 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 11.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of illustrative steps of a process 1200 forreducing bandwidth consumption of a second application, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure. It should be noted that process1200 or any step thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any ofthe devices shown in FIGS. 8-9. For example, process 1200 may beexecuted by control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) as instructed by a mediaguidance application implemented on a user device (e.g., user equipmentdevices 902, 904, and/or 906 (FIG. 9)) in order to reduce bandwidthconsumption of a second application. In addition, one or more steps ofprocess 1200 may be incorporated into or combined with one or more stepsof any other process or embodiment (e.g., as described in relation toFIGS. 1, 10-11, 13-15).

At step 1202, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of control 112 (FIG. 1)determines whether the bandwidth limit of the second application can bereduced. For example, control circuitry 804 may determine that the useris accessing a second media asset on the second application. Supposethat the user is watching a video on the second application, YouTube.Control circuitry 804 may determine that the second application isutilizing 8 Mbps of bandwidth. If the bandwidth is reduced, the videobeing viewed may stop. Therefore, control circuitry 804 may determinethat the bandwidth limit of the second application cannot be reduced.

Furthermore, control circuitry 804 may refer to the user's profile instorage 808 to retrieve a priority list. The priority list may providedetails about the importance of various events. For example, anemergency weather alert may have a higher priority than a social mediapost. If the second media asset being accessed is associated with anemergency weather alert, control circuitry 804 may determine that thebandwidth limit cannot be reduced in favor of a social media update.Similarly, if an application is accessing a social media post and anemergency weather alert is detected by control circuitry 804 of externaltrigger 102, control circuitry 804 may determine that the bandwidthlimit of the social media application can be reduced.

At step 1204, in response to determining that the bandwidth limit of thesecond application can be reduced, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) ofcontrol 112 (FIG. 1) communicates reduction in the bandwidth limit overa first network different from a second network over which the mediaasset is transferred. For example, control circuitry 804 may send acontrol message to the control circuitry 804 of B/W Control 108 throughcommunication control 110. If the media asset is being transferred fromthe server to the set-top box over a Wi-Fi network, control messagesbetween the server and the set-top box may be transferred over acellular network. In response to the control message, control circuitry804 of B/W Control 108 may reduce the bandwidth limit of the secondapplication and send a control message to control 112 confirming thechange.

In some embodiments, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of control 112(FIG. 1) may recommend applications from which bandwidth may beborrowed, to make up for the additional bandwidth that may be needed bythe first application. For example, the first application may need 5Mbps of additional bandwidth. B/W Control 108 (FIG. 1) may identify theapplications that are running on the user's device and may determine theamount of bandwidth being utilized by each application. In a scenario inwhich two applications, Twitter and Instagram, have respective bandwidthlimits, 5 Mbps and 4 Mbps, B/W Control 108 may determine that theapplications are only accessing photos and are thus each utilizing 1Mbps of the total bandwidth. Accordingly, B/W Control 108 may determinethat the bandwidth limits of Twitter and Instagram can be reduced andcommunicate a recommendation through communication control 110 tocontrol 112 of reducing the bandwidth limit of Twitter and Instagram.B/W Control 108 may also automatically reduce the bandwidth limits.

At step 1206, in response to determining that the bandwidth limit of thesecond application cannot be reduced, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) ofcontrol 112 (FIG. 1) prompts the user to choose whether the secondapplication should be killed. For example, control circuitry 804 maygenerate a user input interface 810 on display 812 that resemblesoverlay 504 in FIG. 5. The user may choose to quit the application orallow the application to continue running via I/O path 802.

At step 1208, in response to the user opting to kill the secondapplication (e.g., confirming selection via I/O Path 802 of control 112(FIG. 1)), control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of control 112 stops theapplication and stores the position of the media asset in a media assetdatabase. The media asset database may include a list of media assets,their associated application, metadata associated with the media asset,and the positions at which the media assets were last closed. Forexample, the media asset database may list a video associated withYouTube. The media asset database may indicate that the user closed thevideo at certain point (e.g., 5 minute 23 seconds into the video).Therefore, in response to the user's selection to kill the secondapplication, control circuitry 804 may close and application and storethe position at which the media asset was last accessed in the mediaasset database.

At step 1210, in response to the user choosing not to kill the secondapplication (e.g., confirming selection via I/O Path 802 of control 112(FIG. 1)), control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of control 112 reduces thequality of the second media asset. For example, control circuitry 804may display the second media asset at a lower resolution. If the mediaguidance application was originally displaying the second media asset inhigh definition, control circuitry 804 may change the resolution tostandard definition. Doing so would free up bandwidth because thestandard definition requires less bandwidth to display.

In some embodiments, control circuitry 804 may reduce the quality of thefirst media asset. For example, the first media asset associated withthe detected event may be a photo. Control circuitry 804 may downsamplethe photo. This reduces the bandwidth requirements of the first mediaasset. In some embodiments, both media assets may be reduced in qualityby control circuitry 804 to free up bandwidth.

In some embodiments, control circuitry 804 may present the media assetin an alternate medium in order to reduce bandwidth utilization of thesecond application. For example, control circuitry 804 may determine theuser is accessing a second application, ESPN, which is displaying avideo of a football game. Control circuitry 804 may remove the visualportion of the video such that the media asset becomes solely audio(e.g., commentary of the football game). In another example, the controlcircuitry 804 may present the summary of each play of the football gamein text format. This may be done by extracting subtitles from the video,or retrieving play-by-play text from the Internet.

At step 1212, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of B/W Control 108 (FIG. 1)determines whether there is sufficient bandwidth available in thenetwork. This step may occur once control circuitry 804 determines thatthe user has finished accessing the first media asset. Control circuitry804 may monitor the total bandwidth in the network and update abandwidth database accordingly. The bandwidth database may providedetails about the applications that have or are consuming bandwidth inthe network. Suppose that the total bandwidth in the network is 20 Mbpsand five applications are running simultaneously. Each application mayutilize 1 Mbps. Therefore, control circuitry 804 may determine, based onthe bandwidth database, that a total of 5 Mbps is utilized in thenetwork and 15 Mbps is still available.

At step 1214, in response to determining that there is sufficientbandwidth available, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of control 112(FIG. 1) restarts the second application and continues the media assetat a position substantially similar to the stored location. For example,upon determining that 15 Mbps is available and that the second mediaasset (e.g., video) of the second application (e.g., YouTube) requires 8Mbps, control circuitry 804 may retrieve the position at which torestart the media asset on the second application from the media assetdatabase. For example, control circuitry 804 may retrieve a 5 minute 23seconds position marker associated with the video playing on YouTube.Control circuitry 804 may then restart the second application, YouTube,and continue playback of the video from the 5 minute 23 seconds mark. Insome instances, control circuitry 804 may begin playback from athreshold time before or after the position at which the media asset wasstopped. For example, control circuitry 804 may start the video at the5-minute mark to allow the user to recap where he/she left off.

At step 1216, in response to determining that there is not sufficientbandwidth available, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of B/W Control 108(FIG. 1) checks the amount of bandwidth available in the network. Thisprocess runs in a loop with step 1212 until bandwidth is available.Control circuitry 804 may end the loop if another application that isutilizing bandwidth in the network stops running, thus freeingadditional bandwidth.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 12 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 12 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Any of these steps may also be skipped oromitted from the process. Furthermore, it should be noted that any ofthe devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 8-9 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 12.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of illustrative steps of a process 1300 fordetecting the occurrence of an event and identifying associated mediaassets, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. It shouldbe noted that process 1300 or any step thereof could be performed on, orprovided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 8-9. For example, process1300 may be executed by control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) as instructed bya media guidance application implemented on a user device (e.g., userequipment devices 902, 904, and/or 906 (FIG. 9)) in order to detect theoccurrence of an event and identify associated media assets. Inaddition, one or more steps of process 1300 may be incorporated into orcombined with one or more steps of any other process or embodiment(e.g., as described in relation to FIGS. 1, 10-12, 14-15).

At step 1302, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of external trigger 102(FIG. 1) detects the occurrence of an event. For example, controlcircuitry 804 may monitor incoming network packets and parse thepayloads of each packet that have the destination set to the user's IPaddress. Based on the data in the payloads of a combination of networkpackets (e.g., a complete message may be split across multiple networkpackets), control circuitry 804 may determine an event. For example,control circuitry 804 may detect an incoming weather alert of anapproaching hurricane.

At step 1304, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of control 104 (FIG. 1)determines metadata associated with the event. For example, controlcircuitry 804 may parse the header and payload of each incoming networkpacket associated with the event to extract metadata. The metadata mayprovide information about the event such as event type, eventdescription, time stamps, associated media assets, and associatedapplications.

At step 1306, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of control 104 (FIG. 1)determines whether the event is in a geographically proximate region.For example, the user may live in New York City and therefore indicatethat he/she wishes to be notified of weather alerts in New York City onhis/her user profile. Control circuitry 804 may determine, based on thedata parsed from the network packet payloads, that the event isassociated with New York City, a geographically proximate region.

At step 1308, in response to determining that the event is not in ageographically proximate region, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) ofcontrol 104 (FIG. 1) determines whether the event is associated with asocial media post associated with a user. For example, control circuitry804 may determine, based on the data parsed from the network packetpayloads, that a weather alert event is associated with Hawaii. Sincethe alert is not associated with New York City, the geographicallyproximate region, control circuitry 804 may attempt to determine whetherthe event is associated with a social media post by referring back tothe payloads of the incoming network packets associated with the event.In this example, control circuitry 804 may determine that the event is aweather update and is not a social media post.

At step 1312, if the event is either associated with a social media postassociated with a user or is in a geographically proximate region,control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of control 104 (FIG. 1) determines thatthe event matches the list of events associated with the user. If theevent is associated with a social media post, or is in a geographicallyproximate region (e.g., New York City), control circuitry 804 maydetermine that the event matches the user's list of events. The list ofevents may be retrieved from storage 808 of control 104. In contrast, atstep 1310, if the event is not in a geographically proximate region andis not associated with a social media post associated with the user,control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of control 104 (FIG. 1) determines thatthe event does not match the list of events associated with the user. Inresponse, the process returns to step 1302, as control circuitry 804continues to detect other events.

At step 1314, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of control 104 (FIG. 1)identifies metadata associated with the media asset. For example,control circuitry 804 may detect a media asset, such as a weatherforecast graphic. Control circuitry 804 may extract the metadataassociated with the media asset by referring to the media assetdatabase. The metadata of the media asset may provide details such asmedia asset type (e.g., video, photo, game, etc.), description, timestamp and associated events.

At step 1316, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of control 104 (FIG. 1)compares the metadata of the event with the metadata of the mediaassets. For example, the media asset may be a graphic of the hurricane'strajectory. Control circuitry 804 may determine, upon retrievingmetadata associated with the media asset from the media asset database,that the media asset is associated with weather alert events. Similarly,control circuitry 804 may determine, based on the data parsed from thepayloads of incoming network packets (e.g., used to generate eventmetadata), that the weather alert event is associated with graphicsrelated to the hurricane.

At step 1318, based on the comparison of metadata, control circuitry 804(FIG. 8) of control 104 (FIG. 1), identifies the media asset. Forexample, control circuitry 804 may identify the media asset because itrelates to the event that matches the user's list of events. Morespecifically, control circuitry 804 may determine that the metadata ofthe media asset corresponds to the metadata of the event. In this case,control circuitry 804 may identify the graphic of the hurricane'strajectory as a media asset that relates to the weather alert event.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 13 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 13 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Any of these steps may also be skipped oromitted from the process. Furthermore, it should be noted that any ofthe devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 8-9 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 13.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of illustrative steps of a process 1400 fordetermining a first and second likelihood for a first and secondapplication, respectively, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. It should be noted that process 1400 or any step thereofcould be performed on, or provided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS.8-9. For example, process 1400 may be executed by control circuitry 804(FIG. 8) as instructed by a media guidance application implemented on auser device (e.g., user equipment devices 902, 904, and/or 906 (FIG. 9))in order to determine a first and second likelihood for a first andsecond application, respectively. In addition, one or more steps ofprocess 1400 may be incorporated into or combined with one or more stepsof any other process or embodiment (e.g., as described in relation toFIGS. 1, 10-13, and 15).

At step 1402, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of control 104 (FIG. 1)retrieves a user profile associated with the user. For example, controlcircuitry 804 may retrieve the user profile from storage 808. The userprofile may track the user's application usage history. For example, theapplication usage history may indicate the application's name, a datewhen the user accessed the application, times when the user opened orclosed the application, and the bandwidth conditions during the time theuser accessed the application. Control circuitry 804 may populate theapplication usage history whenever a user accesses an application andmay also increment the number of times an application is accessed.

At step 1404, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of measurement 106 (FIG. 1)determines a first number of times a first application is accessed.Suppose that the first application is Facebook. The user profile mayindicate, for example, that the user accessed Facebook 200 times eversince the user began using his/her set-top box.

At step 1406, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of measurement 106 (FIG. 1)determines a second number of times a second application is accessed.Suppose that the second application is Instagram. The user profile mayindicate, for example, that the user accessed Instagram 300 times eversince the user began using his/her set-top box.

In some embodiments, the user may use multiple local devices to accessthe applications. For example, the user may use computer equipment 904or a wireless user communications device 906. The number of times anapplication is accessed may be based on the device used for access. Forexample, the user profile may indicate that Facebook was used 200 timeson the user's set top box, 50 times on computer equipment, and 500 timeson the user's smartphone.

At step 1408, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of measurement 106 (FIG. 1)computes a first percentage of the access of the first application and asecond percentage of the access of the second application. For example,control circuitry 804 may determine that the user used his/her set-topbox for 300 hours. Of those 300 hours, control circuitry 804 maydetermine that the user spent 50 hours on Facebook and 10 hours onInstagram. Therefore, control circuitry 804 may determine that the firstpercentage of access of the first application, Facebook, isapproximately 17% and the second percentage of access of the secondapplication, Instagram, is 3.3%.

At step 1410, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of control 104 (FIG. 1)determines a first and second likelihood of accessing the first andsecond application based on the first number/percentage and secondnumber/percentage. Control circuitry 804 may consider both the numberand the percentage for each application when determining the likelihood.Even if the user frequently uses one application more than another(e.g., has accessed the application a greater number of times), the usermay spend more time on the other application. The user may indicatewhether the media guidance application should use percentage or numberfor determining likelihoods via I/O path 802. Control circuitry 804 maystore this setting in the user profile. In some embodiments, controlcircuitry 804 may utilize a likelihood algorithm that considers bothduration and frequency of access.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 14 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 14 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Any of these steps may also be skipped oromitted from the process. Furthermore, it should be noted that any ofthe devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 8-9 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 14.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of illustrative steps of a process 1500 fordetermining characteristics of media assets for comparison processes, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. It should be notedthat process 1500 or any step thereof could be performed on, or providedby, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 8-9. For example, process 1500 maybe executed by control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) as instructed by a mediaguidance application implemented on a user device (e.g., user equipmentdevices 902, 904, and/or 906 (FIG. 9)) in order to determinecharacteristics of media assets for comparison processes. In addition,one or more steps of process 1500 may be incorporated into or combinedwith one or more steps of any other process or embodiment (e.g., asdescribed in relation to FIGS. 1, and 10-14).

At step 1502, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of control 104 (FIG. 1)retrieves, from the user profile in storage 808, a first plurality ofmedia assets accessed by the user using the first application. Forexample, control circuitry 804 may refer to the media asset database instorage 808 of control 104. Control circuitry 804 may organize thedatabase by application name to determine all the media assetsassociated with an application. For example, control circuitry 804 maydetermine that a first application, ESPN, is used to access media assetssuch as videos of baseball highlights, photos of baseball games, injurystatus updates, and game schedules.

At step 1504, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of control 104 (FIG. 1)determines a first set of characteristics common to the first pluralityof media assets. For example, the control circuitry 804 may determinethat there is commonality between the photos and videos the useraccesses because they are related to baseball. Control circuitry 804 maydetermine this by retrieving the metadata of both media assets from themedia asset database, and using natural language processing and keywordsto identify similar words. Therefore, the first set of characteristicscommon to the first plurality of media assets may be media assetsassociated with baseball (e.g., videos of homeruns, press conferencephotos, etc.).

At step 1506, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of control 104 (FIG. 1)retrieves, from the user profile, a second plurality of media assetsaccessed by the user using a second application. For example, controlcircuitry 804 may determine that the user uses Yahoo Weather to viewgraphics and videos of weather forecasts.

At step 1508, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of control 104 (FIG. 1)determines a second set of characteristics common to the secondplurality of media assets. For example, control circuitry 804 maydetermine that the metadata of both media assets indicate an associationwith weather forecasts. Therefore, the second set of characteristics mayinclude various types of media associated with weather forecasts.

At step 1510, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of control 104 (FIG. 1)determines a type of the media asset. For example, control circuitry 804may refer to the media asset database in storage 808 of control 104.Control circuitry 804 may organize the database by application name todetermine all the media assets associated with an application. Forexample, control circuitry 804 may determine that a second application,ESPN, is used to access media assets such as videos of baseballhighlights, photos of baseball games, injury status updates, and gameschedules.

At step 1512, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) of control 104 (FIG. 1)compares the type of the media asset to the first set of characteristicsand the second set of characteristics. For example, control circuitry804 may determine that the weather forecast graphic is not associatedwith baseball, based on the metadata of the weather alert media asset.Alternatively, control circuitry 804 may confirm that the weatherforecast graphic is associated with the second set of characteristicsbecause they list weather updates and forecasts.

At step 1514, based on the comparison, control circuitry 804 (FIG. 8) ofcontrol 104 (FIG. 1) determines the first likelihood and the secondlikelihood. In the example given, control circuitry 804 may use alikelihood algorithm to determine the respective likelihood. Forexample, the likelihood algorithm may indicate that the secondlikelihood (e.g., 90%) is greater than the first likelihood (e.g., 5%)because the second set of characteristics match the type of the mediaasset (e.g., the user is more likely to access the second application,Yahoo Weather, to access the weather forecast graphic).

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 15 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 15 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Any of these steps may also be skipped oromitted from the process. Furthermore, it should be noted that any ofthe devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 8-9 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 15.

The processes discussed above are intended to be illustrative and notlimiting. One skilled in the art would appreciate that the steps of theprocesses discussed herein may be omitted, modified, combined, and/orrearranged, and any additional steps may be performed without departingfrom the scope of the invention. More generally, the above disclosure ismeant to be exemplary and not limiting. Only the claims that follow aremeant to set bounds as to what the present invention includes.Furthermore, it should be noted that the features and limitationsdescribed in any one embodiment may be applied to any other embodimentherein, and flowcharts or examples relating to one embodiment may becombined with any other embodiment in a suitable manner, done indifferent orders, or done in parallel. In addition, the systems andmethods described herein may be performed in real time. It should alsobe noted that the systems and/or methods described above may be appliedto, or used in accordance with, other systems and/or methods.

1. A method of dynamically adapting network performance parameters forapplications, the method comprising: setting a first bandwidth limit fora first application and a second bandwidth limit for a secondapplication; detecting an event of interest to a user; identifying amedia asset associated with the event; determining a first likelihoodthat the media asset will be accessed using the first application and asecond likelihood that the media asset will be accessed using the secondapplication; and in response to determining that the first likelihood isgreater than the likelihood, reducing the second bandwidth limit by afirst amount to increase the first bandwidth limit by the first amount.2.-51. (canceled)